5.1-5.3 Environmental Science

Which of the following could reduce the tragedy of the commons in a forest?

• creating quotas for tree removal

• eliminating private ownership of forests

• giving tax breaks to logging companies

• reducing the cost of forest management

Which is a practical method for managing a commons, like the oceans of the world?

• divide the resources into sections and assign them

• eliminate all private ownership of the resource

• make the resource cheaper to access

• offer tax breaks to resource users

Which of these are "commons?"

• oil rigs

• groundwater/aquifers

• national forests/national parks

• Antarctica

• radio stations

Public land is overgrazed by privately owned cows. This is an example of the...

• Tragedy of the commons

• Right of eminent domain

• Rule of seventy

• Principle of manifest destiny

• Swapping of debt for nature

Which is the best example of the tragedy of the commons?

• Agreements between ranchers to jointly manage grazing land

• Depletion of fish in the North Atlantic

• Collective grape farming in French communities

• Using national forests for timber production

• Restriction of nuclear wastes to a single site in Nevada

Which is the best example of the tragedy of the commons?

• Overfishing in private lakes

• Invasive species as biological control

• Exponential population growth

• Toxin concentration increases at higher trophic levels

• Pollution of the Gulf of Mexico by oil rigs

Which is the best example of the tragedy of the commons?

• Destruction of landscapes by private surface mining

• Selective harvesting of trees in a national forest

• Catch limit laws to avoid fish depletion in a shared lake

• Accidental destruction of other species during pest control

• Depletion of an aquifer by regional farmers

Why is unregulated tree harvesting in the tropical rainforest an example of the tragedy of the commons?

• rain forests have low nutrients, which slows tree growth

• not everyone has equal access to trees

• timber companies remove as much timber as they can as cheaply as they can

• rain forests of the highest number of species, and trees are an important habitat

How can fishing be an example of the tragedy of the commons?

• fishing companies compete for the shared resource and extract it unsustainably

• decreasing fish populations cause decreases in predator populations

• the fish industry's collapse would lead to job losses

• fish farming uses selective breeding

Which is most likely to happen after clearcutting a forest?

• a decrease in landslides

• a decrease in runoff volume

• a decrease in water temperature

• an increase in topsoil depth

• an increase in nitrates in local streams